PS4 VS Xbox – Round 2 – The Controller

What’s the very first thing , the most important piece of the console, the thing you have to get into and use every single time you play a game? The controller. This one single device can make or break a console for someone, and is one of the most defining experiences of it. Xbox 1? PS4? Which controller is better? Well, that’s about preference. What ISN’T about preference is features, usability, and stability. Click through for my review

Since it’s inception, Sony has notoriously chosen to develop small controllers. The PS2 and PS3 controllers were just clearly developed for someone with tiny hands, instead of grown ups, or adults. The GOOD news? They increased the size of the controller a good bit. This had to be done to add the touch pad in, obviously…. The BAD news? Still a good deal smaller than what is considered to be the leading controller , the xBox controller

Let’s take a look at the pros and cons of each, shall we?Sony
Pros:
It’s got a pretty light system attached
It’s got a pretty sound system attached to it (rather unique, really)
It’s got a unique gamepad attached to it
It’s larger than the previous versions

Cons:
Battery life is HORRIBLE.
After about 3 hours , I was down to one bar, from 4. This is just not an acceptable level of battery life, and I’mnottheonlyone that’s noticed it. There are tweaks, there are external addons, but come on now, this is by far a horrible, horrible situation to put a consumer through. Whoever thought this up should literally be fired.

Fixed Battery
Let the consumer swap out their battery. Is it REALLY that important here to tie the consumer to a poor battery? Come on now!!

MicrosoftPros:
Replaceable battery. You put your AA’s in there and the battery life is determined by the power of those. A side by side comparison of 360 and One controllers shows that the lifetime is pretty much just as good on both. This does me really, really good 🙂
Size:
THIS controller is clearly designed to fit adults and teens alike.

Cons:
It’s just a controller. No pretty light, sound, or gamepad system

Winner: Microsoft (1/0):
While Sony’s controller is clearly designed to bring more to game play (good for them, really), and has a host of additional features, it’s clear that they never took into account battery life here. I’d be willing to bet their answer to this problem is to just play plugged in. Why should we? The days of being tied to your console have been over for at least a generation now. Adding to this, the controller still feels like it was designed by/for someone with small hands.

Microsoft didn’t really add anything to their controller, but they didn’t have to. The 360 controller was as close to perfection as you can get.